Session 1 Roundup

Sapporo, JapanMarch 14, 2014

Germany defeated Sweden in the opening session of play Photo: WCF/Richard Gray

It took all the way to an extra end but Germany beat Sweden 6-4 in Saturday's opening session of round-robin play in the ZEN-NOH World Women's Curling Championship being held in the Tsukisamu Gymnasium in Sapporo, Japan.

To create the extra-end chance for herself, Germany skip Daniela Driendl had to draw her final stone of the tenth end into the house around a Swedish stone, scoring two points and levelling the game at 4-4.

After that, Sweden's fourth player Maria Prytz came up short with her final stone, giving Germany a two-point steal for their 6-4 win.

After the game, when asked about having to go to an extra end, Driendl said: "We don't mind extra ends - if we win!"

About her tense draw in the tenth end, she confirmed: "I was confident because I feel like I'm very good with my draw-weight, so as soon as I have a draw I'm happy."

Switzerland, who won this title last year, are skipped by Alina Paetz – her team newcomers at this level.

They faced hosts Japan in their opener and it was the Swiss who made the first break-through when, in the fourth end, Paetz hit out a Japanese stone to score two points for a 2-1 lead. The Swiss went on to win 5-3.

Afterwards, Paetz spoke about her draw in the fourth end, saying: "It was the game-changer. We were always under pressure before that. I was nervous about drawing, but I did it, so it's OK."

More generally, she said: "It's really important to get off to a winning start, especially for us, being the first time at the World Women's (Championship)."

Norway faced China and Norwegian skip Kristin Skaslien gave herself a good start, drawing her final stone of the first end into the house to open the scoring with three points.

In the fourth end it was China's turn to score three points when their skip Sijia Liu drew the final stone of the end and take a 5-4 lead.

China went on to score two points in the eighth end and steal a further one point in the ninth end, after which Norway conceded to give China a 10-6 win.

Speaking about coming from 0-3 down, Liu said: "We had to be patient, but we did the best we could. We have more confidence after this game."

In the game between USA and Russia, the turning point came in the seventh end when Russia's skip Anna Sidorova hit out a USA stone and scored four points to take the lead at 9-4, before eventually winning 12-4.

Afterwards, Sidorova said: "It’s pretty tough to play the first game because you don’t know the ice. You’re just trying to get used to it and there could be some surprises from the ice and the draw-weight and line a well."

More generally, she said: "There’s always room to improve, so we’re just trying to improve from here."

World Curling TV (WCTV), the television arm of the World Curling Federation, will provide extensive live and video-on-demand coverage to broadcasters around the world from Sapporo. The full broadcast schedule is here: http://wwcc2015.worldcurling.net/schedule

In addition, curling fans around the world will be able to follow selected live coverage of the 2015 World Championship events via the World Curling Federation’s YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV